26 - INAGAWA: AN EXCEEDINGLY RARE THREE-CASE GOLD LACQUER ‘TENSHO KARUTA’ INRO

INAGAWA: AN EXCEEDINGLY RARE THREE-CASE GOLD LACQUER ‘TENSHO KARUTA’ INRO By a member of the Inagawa family, signed Inagawa 稲川 saku 作 with a red pot seal. Japan, 18 th-19 th century, Edo period (1615-1868) Ingeniously constructed in the form of two overlapping playing cards, bearing a radiant nashiji ground and exquisitely decorated in gold, silver, and iro-e takamaki-e and hiramaki-e, enriched with hirame and applied gold foil. One side depicts the King of Clubs, while the reverse shows the King of Coins, both derived from early European-style playing cards introduced to Japan and subsequently adapted as karuta. The richly attired kings are rendered with distinctly foreign features, each raising the emblem of his suit, while on either side the partially overlapping reverse of a second card is decorated with an intricate silver diaper pattern. The interior cases are finished in fine nashiji with gold fundame rims. Signed to the underside in gold lacquer INAGAWA saku [made by Inagawa] with a red pot seal. With a lacquer ojime and a matching hako netsuke showing game counters. HEIGHT 8.3 cm, LENGTH 6.5 cm Provenance: Christie’s New York, Japanese Art, 24 April 1997, lot 148 (sold for USD 5,520 or approx. EUR 10,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing). From the private collection of Alan and Simone Hartman, New York, United States, acquired from the above. Alan Hartman (1930-2023) was an influential American art dealer, who took over his parents’ antique business in Manhattan and established the legendary Rare Art Gallery on Madison Avenue, with further locations in Dallas and Palm Beach. His wife Simone (née Horowitz) already served as assistant manager of the New York gallery before the couple were married in 1975, and together they built a renowned collection for over half a century and became noted art patrons, enriching the collections of important museums including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which opened the Alan and Simone Hartman Galleries in 2013, as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Brooklyn Museum in New York. Notably, they assembled an impressive collection of Japanese art, focusing on fine netsuke, inro, and lacquer. Condition: Excellent condition, with only very minor wear along the case edges. With an associated wood storage box. European playing cards were introduced to Japan by Portuguese seafarers in the mid-16th century, particularly through the ports of southern Japan, and were being produced locally by the end of the century. The earliest Japanese examples are conventionally known as Tensho karuta, a term combining the name of the Tensho era (1573-1592) with karuta, derived from the Portuguese carta, meaning “card.” Closely modeled on their Portuguese prototypes, these early Japanese packs, like related Spanish and northern Italian cards, comprised four suits - swords, clubs, cups, and coins - each with three court cards: king, knight, and knave. The figures depicted on the present inro bear striking similarities to those found on one of the earliest surviving Japanese playing cards of this type, preserved in the Tekisui Museum.